Daniel Craig’s new job leaves James Bond in limbo

Today’s announcement that Daniel Craig is to star in a Hollywood film of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is great news for fans of Stieg Larsson. But it represents a rather less exciting development for those who prefer Craig’s other alter ego, James Bond.

As I noted last month, when I reported on growing rumours that Craig, left, was to play Mikael Blomkvist in the eagerly anticipated literary adaptation, the British actor would normally have been expected to spend the coming months working on a new 007 flick.

However ongoing troubles at the storied Hollywood studio MGM, whose finances have been mismanaged into a $4 billion black hole (regarding which a definitive account appeared in Saturday’s FT) have meant that work on the new Bond film was recently put on ice.

Now we learn that Craig has agreed to take the lead role in a film which is expected to become a major franchise, and could – if everything goes according to plan – span a total of three major summer blockbusters.

This suggests that the British star may very well not be expecting to be called up for Bond duty any time soon. So 007’s most recent outing, in 2008’s underwhelming Quantum of Solace, is likely to be his last for several more years to come.

Today’s Hollywood Reporter looks at the fate of the Bond franchise, and concludes that it: “hangs in the balance.” (link here) Reuters meanwhile says the makers of the film are “panicked” (link here) by the failure to get a new 007 title off the ground.

All of which also represents terrible news for Sam Mendes, who badly needs a commercial hit to counterbalance a series of recent box office disappointments. Having been lined-up to direct the next Bond movie, the former Mr Kate Winslet is also now left out in the cold.

I struggle to understand why it is considered necessary to have a Hollywood remake of the ‘Girl…’ Trilogy. The first film was fantastic and I am eagerly awaiting the second, released in the UK next month. There is no need to make the films a ’star vehicle’ (and I have also seen some bizarre names suggested for the rôle of Lisbet). I have rarely seen a Hollywood remake which has matched up to a foreign language original and I hope it’s not just because people cannot cope with a subtitled film (

Barton

I think it is exactly because poeple aren’t willing to try subtitled or dubbed films. I saw the first and second movie with subtitles (second out in the US already), as such, I won’t be seeing the remake.

This is the way Hollywood works – take a great/good foreign film and restage it for Americans. Scorsese recently did this with The Departed, based on a very very good Hong Kong movie, Infernal Affairs (which, I believe, even won an Oscar as best foreign film). Hollywood is re-filming Let The Right One In as well – and that has been widely seen in the states. Personnally, I think re-filming/re-imaging the original works is rude and condescending – to both the original artists/country of origin, and to the American/English speaking audiences.

Surely, the other side to it would be an eagerly awaited return to James Bond when the next film does get released. If the last film was not so much of a success, a long awaited next film would be better for the future.